What happened to 2019? (and the 1900’s for that matter!)

By 7 Comments

If you are on my email list, I can only imagine your response to getting this post.

  • I thought he quit and when back to working in Insurance.
  • I thought he was forced to flee the country.
  • I thought he was on an expedition to India “find himself”.

What really happened

All of those were good guesses and all had a decent chance at being correct, however, it was not that exciting.

I started a new position as a Landscape Designer last March. The time and more importantly mental energy required to create blog posts was effectively used up for the rest of the year. My noggin needed R&R and was not going to take no for an answer.

So like another time I came back to writing after taking a breather (my 100th post), I am making this a quick one and just sharing a few photos of my garden from last year to give you an idea how things are developing.

In May, Purple Sensation Allium blooms in front of yellow twig dogwood flowers.

 

My garden project to fiddle with last year was this part sun/shade area. Here the Pagoda dogwood is blooming as are the Wild Geranium.

 

The Front Pondless Waterfall garden will never be “done” but the plants are pretty filled in. If I could just leave them alone now.

 

My original lakeside planting looks much nicer in June than this photo shows. The Blue Ice Bluestar and Bradbury Monarda are doing well (as are the monster Purple Coneflower getting ready to bloom).

My Little Bluestem based prairie planting from last year is really taking off it’s second season.

 

Although I love the blue color of the “Prairie Blues” grass, it did splay open later in the season due to our very rainy year. I added some other cultivars of little bluestem  (‘Carousel’ and ‘Standing Oviation’) later in 2019 to see if they do better than holding their form than this seed grown strain. I will report back on that.

 

The color of Little Bluestem prairie garden looks very nice in winter. My Paw Paw is taking forever to grow however.

Jim work's as a Landscape Designer in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. He's also been a horticulturist and aesthetic pruner at a top quality Japanese Garden, as well as a freelance garden consultant, Risk Management Consultant, Insurance Safety inspector and head banging Ice Cream Truck driver (yeah that was me cranking "And Justice for All") among other things.

Comments

  1. Katie says

    Your property is beautiful. I read your article about Prairie Dropseed and thought the photo you used was from a magazine. You certainly know how to combine plants well. The Bradbury Monarda and Bluestar look great together, as does the Butterfly Weed and Bluestem.

    Reply

  2. Leigh Swain says

    I’m new to your posts. Where do you live? You have a garden I can only dream of. I’m in Sydney with a horrendous drought. Severe water restrictions and my garden is a disaster ATM. I have a watering system but it is severely restricted. I can only hope it rains soon. Most of my established plantings are hanging in there but I stupidly did some planting I November and I have lost all of them. At least I’m not in a bushfire zone so I have little to complain about.
    Please keep up with you’re photos so I can continue dreaming!!!

    Reply

    • Jim says

      I am in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL USA.

      I am hoping rain heads your way soon as well as for your entire country.

      Reply

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